| Commentary From Dr. Kennedy | |
| Needed: Men Like John Knox | |
| The
raging fire of persecution now licking the feet of believers in
nations such as Sudan, China, and North Korea has not yet
reached our shores. We don’t feel the heat, but we can hear
the roar. While we can, we must strengthen the rotting timbers
of our nation’s moral foundation—not just to preserve
freedom here, but to advance it abroad. To do that, we need men like Scottish Reformer John Knox, who God used to transform his native land. At his birth, Scotland was one of the most backward, sinful, wicked, and superstitious nations in all of Europe. For centuries after his death, it was a nation noted for its honesty, morality, and piety. Knox was a man determined to change not only the hearts of men, but the destiny of his nation. We need such men today. Four traits help explain Knox and his profound impact on Scotland, and even America. First, knowledge. Knox displayed a keen intellect and was noted for his ability with languages, philosophy, and logic. Trained in Latin and Greek, he took up Hebrew at age 50 in order to translate the Bible. At that late age, he so mastered it that he was able to translate the entire Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek texts. Second, faith. While still an ordained Roman Catholic priest, Knox discovered both John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion and the Bible, which he had not seen before. Together with the godly example of fellow reformer George Wishart, Knox came to faith in the glorious Gospel of Christ. |
Third,
zeal. Captured by the French and made to serve as a galley slave
for 18 months, Knox did not despair. When his ship passed within
sight of the spires of St. Andrews, where he had first
proclaimed the Gospel, he declared, “As God gives me the
breath, I will once again proclaim the gospel from that great
church.”
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Knox also displayed great zeal in prayer. Once, as he knelt to
pray in a church garden, he was overheard to cry aloud with
great agony of spirit, “Great God, give me Scotland, or I
die.” That was truly the beginning of the transformation of
that land. In a very real sense, before John Knox died, God had
given him Scotland. What we need today are men who will say,
“O God, give me America, or I die.”